The 2022 annual ACSE Awards for Excellence in Engineering were presented on Thursday 3 November 2022. The event was a sit down dinner, hosted at L’Aqua – Darling Harbour. There were 15 submissions across 5 categories.
Excellence in Engineering Awards
2022 Excellence in Engineering Awards
2022 Awards Judging Panel:
Paul Moore – President, ACSE NSW
Matt Harding – Chief Engineer – Australia, Lendlease
Eric Smith – Gold Medal 2020
Brian Uy – Head of School, Civil Engineering, University of Sydney
Emily Chung – Technical Coordinator, Green Building Council of Australia Joseph Gengo – President, ACSE Victoria
Award for Large Building Projects
Winner:
QUAY QUARTER LANES
SCP Consulting
High Commendation:
SYDNEY FOOTBALL STADIUM
Robert Bird Group
Quay Quarter Lanes is a mixed-use development located in the Sydney CBD and comprises of 3 new buildings over a shared basement.
The project included refurbishment of heritage buildings, Hinchcliff House and Gallipoli Memorial Club, as well as a new Retail Precinct. Quay Quarter Lanes was Commissioned by AMP Capital Investors at a value of 200 million dollars.
SCP Consulting provided structural and civil engineering design, working alongside Richard Crookes Constructions and a team of five leading Australian architects.
SCP overcame significant design challenges on the site such as preserving the heritage listed Bennelong Drain, a GPO fault zone and a rail corridor.
Robert Bird Group worked collaboratively with John Holland, Aurecon and SBP to design the temporary works for the erection of the Sydney Football Stadium roof, and for the construction of the bowl and concourse stadium structures.
The height constraints for the new Sydney Football Stadium required a single layer shell roof structure, while keeping the eaves low to fit within an overall project height limit.
The roof structure consists of a form found cable net shape, with imposed loads, through pre-set geometry, including front eyebrow and front edge stiffening trusses, supported from the perimeter and the corners of the lower stand, and a geometrically pre-set tension ring supporting the diagrid.
The project is an excellent example of aligning construction methodology, temporary works and permanent works to deliver an efficient and sustainable roof structure, and demonstrates structural innovation.
Award for Small-Medium Building Projects
Winner:
LORETO KIRRIBILLI INNOVATION CENTRE
Northrop
High Commendation:
ST ANDREWS CHURCH HALL
Robert Bird Group
‘Spiritus’ is Loreto Kirribilli’s new 7-storey Innovation Centre, incorporating a range of dynamic, versatile learning spaces and studios, to support the growing STEM needs of the school’s year 7-12 cohort.
Loreto’s Kirribilli campus has grown over the past 200 years, and now consists of many buildings of varying construction materials and scales supporting the junior and high school requirements.
Excavated into a steeply sloping site, the new Centre interfaces with three adjacent buildings, providing better connectivity through the campus. The development also took the opportunity to improve the functionality of the existing gymnasium and junior school buildings.
St Andrew’s church and the adjacent church hall structure was erected in 1926 within what was the small township of Parramatta. Fast forward almost 100 years and Parramatta city is now the commercial centre of Sydney’s West and home some of Sydney tallest skyscrapers.
To conserve the Southern façade of the St Andrew’s church hall heritage fabric, RBG developed an integrated construction methodology and sequence solution, to transfer the existing church hall masonry structure onto the permanent suspended slab, while allowing excavation of the 9-storey basement to occur below. The plunge column integration, location of steel needle beams and the width of the suspended slab was strategically selected to allow maximum retention of the church hall while allowing the future jump form to pass unimpeded upwards. RBG de-risked the construction sequence by using in-house digital capabilities.
Award For Sustainable Structures
Winner:
NATIONAL HERBARIUM
SCP
The newly imagined National Herbarium of NSW at Mount Annan is built to house the Australian Institute of Botanical Science’s growing collection of over 1.4 million botanical specimens. The main focus of the project is 6 distinctive rammed earth vaults, designed to be able to shield the botanical collection from bushfires and extreme temperatures.
SCP Consulting provided Structural & Civil engineering services while PMI Engineers provided the structural engineering for the unique fly roof.
The Herbarium is a great example of sustainability and has set a precedence for future sustainable projects in NSW.
Awards for People of the Year
Casthuri is a dedicated team leader and role model at Partridge. She is an advocate and instigator of the Partridge Intern and Graduate program. She assists in the oversight of the junior members and ensures they are educated, led, and exposed to the industry. She began as an intern in 2012, working on a wide range of projects at a small structural consultancy, varying from modest single-dwelling homes to post-tensioning design. She then progressed to designing and delivering large-scale commercial projects where she was given the opportunity to work within commercial, multi-residential, government, health, and temporary event structures, which reignited a creative flame in her and led her to Partridge. Casthuri regularly encourages the participation of staff members, in particular juniors and females, in industry events and activities that promote learning, development, and diversity.
Matt has been an integral member of Northrop’s structural team since starting as an undergraduate in 2016. He currently leads some of Northrop’s largest and most technically challenging projects across the residential, student accommodation and recreation sectors, including four new student accommodation towers in Kensington and the new artificial surf lagoon in Sydney Olympic Park.
Matt also makes a significant contribution to Northrop outside of his project work by publishing multiple design guides and design tools for use across the company, mentoring graduate engineers, running internal training courses, presenting at conferences and lunch time tech talks and through his work in Northrop’s structural technical group.
Gold Medal Award
Phil O'Hara
The ACSE Board of Director’s is delighted to present this year’s Gold Medal to Phil O’Hara
Phil O’Hara came from Canberra in 1988 to open a branch office of Murray Northrop P/L on the back of the Lake Crackenback Village project near Thredbo. The project was designed in conjunction with the Architects now called BVN and went on to win the Sulman Medal.
Phil has 45 years experience as a structural design engineer. His projects range from houses and house extensions, educational facilities, correctional centres, industrial buildings and the occasional timber roller coaster!
When Phil joined Murray Northrop in 1988 there was a total of 3 full time staff. Since then the company has grown to 270 people in Sydney and 450 nationally.
Phil’s passion was building the foundations of a business with the right corporate culture. That corporate culture includes empowering engineers with 8-10 years’ experience to step up and “grow-the-pie” whilst at the same time becoming owners of the business.
Northrop Sydney currently has 19 owners with 3 more expected to be added shortly. Phil was President of ACSE NSW in 1996, being the first of 5 Northrop ACSE Presidents.